TGS: Tekken 3 Floor Rocks the House

A huge stage which comprise about 90 percent of Namco's booth was home to easily 40 Tekken 3 PlayStation setups. A videowall provided additional visual overload as techno music blared.

When we arrived at the booth, several of the martial artists who had been used to motion capture the game were involved in an exhibition on the stage. Following the short martial arts exhibition, the fighters faced off in a bout of Tekken 3 as their videogame alter egos.

After all of these acts, a musical dance number featuring no less than 20 scantily clad women sprawled across the catwalks that surrounded the booth. The music and dancing accompanied the CG FMV for the game that has become one of Namco's calling cards. To say the least, Namco has certainly outdone itself. The detail of the renders is amazingly realistic and showcases the usual Tekken suspects.

IGN has previously covered the gameplay aspects of Tekken 3 for PlayStation and the build shown at the show appeared to be identical to the one shown at Namco's launch party in the US last week. Needless to say the game is extremely impressive and will easily rank as one of the best 3D fighters on any platform.

The game ships in Japan next week (March 26) while a US release is expected April 30 (somewhat amazing considering Namco's traditional sluggishness when converting titles for release in the US).